National Defense Authorization Act


The National Defense Authorization Act is the name for each of a series of United States federal laws specifying the annual budget and expenditures of the U.S. Department of Defense. The first NDAA was passed in 1961. The U.S. Congress oversees the defense budget primarily through two yearly bills: the National Defense Authorization Act and defense appropriations bills. The authorization bill determines the agencies responsible for defense, establishes funding levels, and sets the policies under which money will be spent.
In recent years each NDAA also includes provisions only peripherally related to the Defense Department, because unlike most other bills, the NDAA is sure to be considered and passed so legislators attach other bills to it.

2000s legislation

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 was a United States federal law that specified the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense for Fiscal Year 2014. The law authorized the DOD to spend $607 billion in Fiscal Year 2014. On December 26, 2013, President Barack Obama signed the bill into law. This was the 53rd consecutive year that a National Defense Authorization Act has been passed.
The Howard P. "Buck" McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 was one of the proposed NDAA bills for fiscal year 2015. On May 8, 2014, the House Armed Services Committee ordered the bill reported by a vote of 61-0. The Committee spent 12 hours debating the bill and voting on hundreds of different amendments before voting to pass it.

Notable or controversial NDAA legislation